Washington Wizards: 3 Biggest surprises from the first half of the season
By Jamal Bedell
No. 3 – Bradley Beal was the Washington Wizards’ lone All-Star selection.
Bradley Beal has been absolutely unbelievable this year! And it’s about time everyone put some respect on his name! The NBA’s leading scorer (32.9 ppg) was voted an All-Star starter for the first time in his career, and he made the most of this opportunity on Sunday. Beal led Team Durant in scoring with 26 points on 10-16 shooting from the field and 6-12 from three in 30:35 minutes. He continues to prove why he’s arguably the best scorer in the NBA right now.
A bonafide shot maker, Beal already has one 60-point game, three 40-point games, and 18 30-point games so far this year. He’s been carrying the load offensively for the Wizards on a nightly basis, but his backcourt mate, Russell Westbrook, is finally starting to pick up some steam as well. Dealing with a quad injury to start the year, Russ wasn’t quite himself, and his scoring dropped off slightly as he sat out the second half of back-to-backs. In the first two months, Westbrook averaged 20.9 PPG, 9.4 APG, and 9.3 RPG. That’s six points lower than what he averaged last season in Houston (27.2 PPG).
Russ may not be a high-level scorer like Beal anymore, but when he’s right physically, it’s hard to slow him down on the offensive end. These past eight games, the numbers show that he’s starting to get healthy and explosive again. Russ is averaging 23.5 PPG, 10.5 APG, and 10.5 RPG, and the Wizards are 5-3 in that span. Yes, with the Wizards’ early struggles, it’s understandable why Beal was the only All-Star selected, but Russ is clearly still All-Star caliber.
This season was the first time in six years that Russell Westbrook was not selected as an All-Star. You have to go all the way back to 2013-2014 when Russ was recovering from a meniscus injury and missed half the season. The 13-year vet and 9-time All-Star is the ultimate competitor, so he’ll be even more motivated to prove himself once the second half of the year kicks off. Russ still has a lot left in the tank, and even though he may have been snubbed this year because of a slow and inefficient start, I believe his absence from the All-Star team is just an anomaly and not the norm moving forward.